1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an ink cartridge, more particularly to an ink cartridge with an ink supplying chamber and an ink reservoir which are communicated with each other by a conduit for continuously supplying ink to a recording head of an ink jet printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional ink cartridge 1 is shown to include a cartridge body 10 in which an ink absorbent sponge 14 is received for holding ink therein by capillary action. The cartridge body 10 has a supplying port 11 formed in a bottom wall, and an ink refilling port 12 and a vent hole 13 formed in an upper wall. In use, responsive to an activation of a recording head (not shown) of an ink jet printer, the ink is delivered through the supplying port 11 to the recording head. When the ink is exhausted, a barrel-like ink filler 15 is connected to the ink refilling port 12 for refilling the cartridge body 10 with ink. During the refilling process, since the ink is held in pores of the sponge 14 by capillary action, the ink is introduced from the ink filler 15 into the cartridge body 10 very slowly to prevent undesired leakage, thereby resulting in inconvenient operation.
Referring to FIG. 2, another conventional ink cartridge 2 is shown to include a cartridge body 20 in which a partition wall 21 is disposed to divide the cartridge body 20 into an ink supplying chamber 22 and an ink reservoir 23. An ink absorbent sponge 25 is received in the ink supplying chamber 22 to supply ink therein to a recording head (not shown) through a supplying port 24. A passage 27 is formed in a lower end of the partition wall 21 to permit ink in the ink reservoir 23 to continuously enter the ink supplying chamber 22. An ink refilling port 26 is provided for refilling the ink reservoir 23 with ink. In this construction, however, due to gravitational force, when the ink refilling port 26 is open, the ink in the ink reservoir 23 will be attracted by the sponge 25 via the passage 27 so that an excess amount of ink is held in the sponge 25. As a result, ink may leak through the supplying port 24 during a printing process, which is wasteful and will adversely affect the printing quality.